Project Organize- Kid's Toy Storage- Step 1 in Decluttering

Welcome to Project Organize!

 

 Let's face it, we will probably be camped out here for a while...but I hear through the grapevine that some of you have joined me on this mission.  I am thrilled to have you.  Leave a comment and tell me what you are doing and HOW you are doing so we can encourage each other!

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I had grand visions when my oldest was first born.  Only wood toys.  Only educational toys. Only the book classics.  Only open ended toys.

ummmmmmmmm, right!  That lasted not even the first few months.
Then came the barbies, and the plastic toys and the electronics and the stuffed aniamls and on and on and on.  No wonder the grandparents laughed at my lofty ideas.

So I tried harder to limit.  OK, then only a few themes.  Yep, that didn't work either.  Do you KNOW how many Barbies are out there.  Or American Dolls?  Or My Little Ponies?  We wouldn't want to break up a set, you know.

Do we honestly think that playing with 20 of something is better than playing with two of them?  Even this morning my five year old built a "castle" out of pegs and rubber pieces AGAIN and used his dollar store army men as the characters.  Despite the fact that he has two brand name castles upsatirs.

Don't worry, I am not throwing it all out, but I am on a mission to pare down and organize. 

 

My solution for the 5 year old...

Yep.  That's it.

Easy.  Nine cubbies, nine toys.  (come on, they play with the same things over and over again regardless of how much they have and you know it!) You can pick which nine.  The rest are out of here.  Now, before you panic, there are a few bigger pieces that 'go" with these sets.  Those are now stored in his closet on the floor where he can reach them easily.  Pull out castle stuff and need the castle?  It's in the closet.  Playing cars and need a track?  It's in the closet.  Decide to use the animals?  The jungle tree house is in the closet.  You get the idea.  The little things hanging were a simple way for him to see what is in each basket.  He's five- he can't remember.  My oldest thinks it's tacky, I think it is really smart of me!  ;)

Our one exception-

Yes, the dreaded Legos.  We have tried to keep that stash small for the little guy, because honestly, at his age it is not about the building, but just the playing.  So he has a lot of cars and people mostly.  But I found that everytime we put them away at night into one of the baskets they came out a jumbled mess, and quite frankly the 11 year old was growing weary from having to come to mom's rescue and find the missing parts.  Now they all just get parked on the shelves each night.






Ok, so 10 things.

Plus books in a basket.
And a few stuffed animals.

And a new rule- No toys bought unless it is your birthday or Christmas!

At least one of us is going to bed happier! ;)